Milage and gas type

I've had my Smart Car for a year and a half and have never gotten 40 miles to the gallon. Is this typical? I do average about 36 with street and highway traffic. Also, does anyone use a lower fuel type? I'm still using the premium blend. Thanks

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I got my best mileage ever of 40.7 MPG driving 75 MPH from San Diego to Los Angeles and back. This included almost an hour of stop-and-go traffic. I did not run the A/C. Most of the time I seem to average 33-36 MPG driving in San Diego, but I've had many tanks where I only get 30-31 MPG. I think the gas I use is making a difference. Used Chevron Supreme for the drive to LA and got the best mileage, but the pumps are separate for 87-89-91 at that station. I usually go to 76 by my home and there is just one hose for all 3 octanes and my gas mileage is never as good...I'm starting to wonder if they are selling 87 octane at the 91 octane price. Try some different stations and see if that makes a difference.

I usually drive in Auto, and I try to accelerate lightly, except getting on the freeway where I use the paddle shifters sometimes and always give it lots of gas even in Auto.

For those who remember that I posted 61.75+ MPG couple of years ago on over 500 miles driven on a single tank. Back then my overall average MPG was 43mpg.

Couple of years later - my engine now hitting 60000miles mark, my engine avg mpg dropped to between 38 and 40 MPG in careful driving with the best I was able to get on a long distance now was 46 mpg (driving around 55 mph most of the time).

I was somewhat dissappointed at first that I am not getting the high mileage that I used to get, but I am not complaining as I think now it behaves as manufacturer stated it would.

Becky ... I dont know if you are still asking or not but I have only gotten more than 40mpg once. I usually get 32 to 34 with 90% of my driving in the city. I have tried shifting myself and letting the computer shift and the computer got about 1 mpg more. I prefer to shift myself caz I just hate to hear the enging lugging at low RPMs.

I have an '08 & an '09 smart, my wife & I have both gotten 51 mpg doing straight highway driving. This year I got 47 mpg pulling a trailer with camping gear while the wife got 50+ with a passenger when we went to outsmarting the dragon 4. My average in town is 41 mpg.